Global shipments of ultra-high-definition LCD TV panels this year are expected to be 40 times higher than last year due to strong demand primarily from China, providing a boon to Taiwanese panel makers such as Innolux Corp (群創光電), market researcher NPD DisplaySearch said yesterday.
Shipments of 4K2K TV displays are expected to increase to 2.6 million units this year, compared with 63,000 units last year, as panel makers seek to provide cost-efficient ultra-high-definition panels to boost demand, the researcher forecast.
The 4K2K TV displays deliver resolution four times greater than full HD displays.
“The 4K2K TV panels are the latest technology available at the moment,” David Hsieh (謝勤益), a vice president of NPD DisplaySearch, said in a report. “Even though there is a lack of new content in the TVs, companies in the supply chain are to speed up their efforts to boost sales of the ultra-high-definition TV sets.”
Hsieh said several panel makers were working with chip designers to develop new chips for the panels to enable upscaling from high-definition to 4K2K content, which would help drive the 4K2K LCD TV market.
Panel makers collaborating with TV makers to promote such ultra-high-definition sets would benefit from this trend, he said.
In particular, Taiwanese flat- panel maker Innolux has pushed ahead of its South Korean rivals in developing 4K2K TV displays in an attempt to seize new business opportunities, as next-generation OLED TV panels are still beyond the budgetary reach of the majority of consumers.
Innolux’s 4K2K displays range from 39-inch screens to 85-inch screens, with customers including China’s TCL, Skyworth (創惟) and Hisense Group (海信), as well as Japan’s Toshiba, Panasonic and Sharp. AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), which has focused on 55-inch and 65-inch displays, counts Sony, Toshiba, Skyworth and Vizio among its customers, according to DisplaySearch.
Hsieh expected 50-inch, 55-inch and 65-inch 4K2K TVs to account for the biggest portion of this year’s shipments because of strong demand from China.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San